Tantasqua Regional coach Aaron Powell says he has to watch game film a little more often and a little closer than usual these days, but he’s not complaining.

As he, his coaching staff and players get together to watch film of the previous game, mistakes are getting harder and harder to find, which makes sense, if you look at the Warriors’ steady improvement.

“Early in the year, we had to spend time going over some obvious mistakes, whether it was not being in the right place or missing a block,” said Powell, whose team is 2-2. “Now, we feel as if the major points have improved to the point where we’re getting into the more minuscule but important details of the game.”

Tantasqua is running a new offense, a high-octane, no-huddle scheme designed to take advantage of what the Warriors have and, in a sense, cover up what the team is lacking.

“There aren’t going to be many games where we’re the physically bigger team,” Powell said. “We got to the point where we were sick of getting pounded on and thought that if we can’t match up with a team’s size, our best shot at success was to use our speed and athleticism to force the pace, and, hopefully, wear defenses down by the fourth quarter.”

The Warriors’ two losses were to Hometeam media poll top-10 teams, No. 6 Northbridge High and No. 10 Doherty. In both of those games, Tantasqua led entering the fourth quarter.

“We certainly would have wanted to win those games, but we did add confidence in each other and our system,” said senior quarterback Randy Harrington, a first-year starter at that position. “We don’t have the biggest team, but we have a lot of athletes who are good in space, and if we can keep getting them the ball, we should do good things.”

The skill position players include Dom Cruz, Eric Fleshman, Myles Gaudet and Spencer Duncan, all of whom have the ability to break a big play. Harrington is afforded time to find his targets thanks to a steadily improving line anchored by Ryan Kane, who missed last season with health problems.

“The kids really deserve credit for buying into an offense that was innovative and new, but also something that is tough to learn,” Powell said. “Even though the kids were challenged, it’s been an advantage, too. They’ve taken ownership of it and relied on each other to learn it, so that’s brought added cohesion and camaraderie.”

Tantasqua finished 3-8 last year, and can match that win total with a victory over Oxford this weekend.

“Nobody really gave us any credit coming into the season because we didn’t deserve it,” Harrington said. “It’s still early, and we’ve done well so far, but we just need to stay hungry and keep improving. We really had about two weeks to really work on the new offense in game situations, so I think we’re developing, and we should keep getting better.”